Plato Statement of the Individual & Society

Plato presents an explicit statement of the relationship between the individual and society--even an unjust society--in the form of the "Apology," the statement of Socrates to the court that finally sentences him to death. The speech represents the conflict between the power of the state and the integrity of the individual. The court gives Socrates an out if he recants his teachings, and he will not do it. Socrates represents the primary social value of inquiry, of the pursuit of philosophy, of the examination of the meaning of life. He also represents integrity, for when we inquire into the meaning of existence and develop a set of beliefs, we must live up to those beliefs. Socrates believes the unexamined life is not worth living, and if he accepts the right of the court to judge his thoughts, he has lost his integrity. Socrates is a poor man who is rich in intellect and in dedication. His followers carry on his ideas for him, and though they may want to save him, he talks them out of it because to escape would be to go against his principles.

There are two sets of charge against Socrates, as he notes in his speech. The first is called the older or more ancient accusation, while the second is referred to a the contemporary accusation. Socrates dreads the older of the two the most because he has many accusers for this issue and because he cannot name them all, while for the second he can name the three or four men who have brought the charge against him. The old

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ates leads Meletus from one logical point to the next. He shows that the statements made by Meletus seem to indicate that only socrates is corrupting the youth and that everyone else in the city works for the improvement of the young. he gets Meletus to state that no one would intentionally make the people worse than they are while he had to live among them, and clearly Socrates has to live among these young people. It follows that Socrates would not be corrupting the young under these circumstances, Socrates addresses the charge that he does not believe in God. Some if the ideas ascribed to Socrates--that he does not believe in the godhead of the sun and the moon but teaches instead that the sun is a stone and the moon made of earth--and Socrates points out that these were not his ideas but those of Anaxagoras and Clazomenian. Socrates also notes that Meletus has made a logical error by claiming that Socrates is an atheist and that he has introduced new gods to the people, for both statements cannot be true. Socrates says that the most important concern for him, and a concern that should be most important for everyone, is to search into himself and other men. He says that he has been charged with this responsibility by

Category: Philosophy - P